Ty Dillon roasts John Hunter Nemechek over Dover trash talk, breaks down NASCAR bracket one-liner process

NASCAR’s in-season challenge has provided a fun outlet for drivers, especially one like Ty Dillon. Dillon started the tournament as the No. 32 seed — dead last — but has advanced all the way to the final.

With $1 million on the line, he’s kept it loose and fun. In his very first win, against Denny Hamlin, Dillon let loose and took a bit of a pot shot.

He trolled Hamlin, using a riff on Hamlin’s famous post-race line: “For all you Denny fans out there, I just knocked your favorite driver out.”

On Sunday after narrowly edging out John Hunter Nemechek in the semi-finals at Dover, Ty Dillon opened up on what kind of trash talk he produced. He walked the crew of the Door Bumper Clear podcast through his thought process.

“I had a couple things that I thought I would say, but it all played out different,” Dillon said. “No, I just hit him with he bought a shirt of mine, and it feels like everybody gives me just a little bit of material before the race. And I just kind of wait. Like I don’t want to do too much talking before the race. I like to see what they give me. He bought that shirt and ripped it before the race on an interview on TNT.

“So I just made sure everybody knew you can go on Kaulig Racing and buy that same extra small shirt from John Hunter. And then they were like, ‘It looked like it was tough for him to tear it.’ I was like, ‘What do you expect? It’s got my name on it.’ So just had a little bit of fun.”

With Ty Dillon advancing to the final round against Ty Gibbs, the NASCAR world will be pulling for one of the two drivers. Dillon might just have earned himself fan favorite status with his fun-loving approach to the whole tournament.

It’s left him in a unique position of sorts. He explained.

“That’s been the coolest part about this thing is just the support from everybody, not even just fans, but in the sport saying, ‘We’re pulling for you, hope you get it done,'” Dillon said. “That’s not something I’ve had at all in my career. It’s been quite the other side. I don’t feel like I’ve had a lot of people in my corner, but now it’s been really cool to get that recognition and have fun with it.”

Rest assured, Ty Dillon’s opponents have also taken things in stride. Hamlin was a great sport about the comments, and Nemechek was too.

In fact, Dillon and Nemecheck has a pretty healthy relationship. Their families are close.

“I have a lot of love for John Hunter Nemechek,” Ty Dillon said. “His daughter and my son are like best friends at school and we see each other at school drop-off every day, so it’s pretty cool.”